me, my thoughts on life and travels, day to day experiences and the people I meet.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

one week later

It has been a week since the train bombings and life seems nearly back to normal here in the big city of islands. Trains this morning were packed like usual, no fear in riding, at least not apparent in the choice to board.

The President visited the city, victims and some bomb sites for the past two days as well as several other VIPs and politicians from Delhi. I think we saw the pres today in his motorcade of white cars.

There was a moment of silence for the victims to be held at the timings of the bombings today. Trains were to be stopped for those two minutes. There have been hoaxes, I think there have been two days that trains were halted for a while due to a threat of terror.

One peice of the aftermath has included another type of silence. Blogspot and three or four other blog sites have been blocked from ISPs in India. This is on demand from the ministry of communication. There were a couple of articles in the papers this morning and k. was interviewed regarding the issue. I guess this has been done in other countries saudi arabia and pakistan for example. "globalvoicesonline.org/2006/03/02/pakistan-blogspot-blogs-blocked-in-pakistan/Pakistan has banned blogs hosted on blogger.coms blogspot domains. Global Voices blog follows the development."

Thankfully there has been a huge outcry from indian bloggers. Questioning the ministries decision, that did not include any notification and participating ISPs blocking. As the world's largest democracy, I only hope it works in practice as designed in theory and the government acknowledges its citizens opinions and rights.

Sending out peaceful and loving thoughts to the 190 who were killed families and friends. And pray for peace around the world, scary times when a headline "bomb blast in Iraq that kills 50" does not even stir much surprise. And to all those fighting in Isreal/Lebanon/Gaza Strip wish for the violence to end. I firmly believe it does not solve problems.

Find out what India is talking about on Yahoo! Answers India. Send FREE SMS from New Yahoo! Messenger to Mobile: Download NOW!